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Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Groundhog Day...All Over Again

Watching The Good Wife this evening (yes, I'll admit I watch it), I noticed something familiar, a view of a street that looked straight out of Groundhog Day, one of my favorite movies. A couple minutes research on the 'net and what did I find? It's lifted straight from the film!

For all I know this is common, and most likely the makers of The Good Wife paid for the two-second clip and are using it legally, but it's funny how they make the figures walking in the middle of the street (they are further left in the Groundhog Day clip, which is a second or two later than the clip above) become the characters in the TV show when they cut to the next close shot. Check it out.

The footage used in "Blade Runner" came from outtakes from "The Shining". I'm not sure about the "Legend" footage, which has always puzzled me (though not enough to actually watch "Legend" again..) For me, one of the most startling re-uses of a film came about 15 years ago in "Dash and Lily", a tv-movie about Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman. At one point, the pair go to a movie, and the film cuts to an exterior shot from "Singin' in the Rain" showing the marquee for Lockwood and Lamont in "The Dancing Cavalier"...

I thought the Groundhog Day clip was strange, but then I remembered: this episode was originaly scheduled to air last week, the day before Groundhog day. Because of the State of the Union address, the episodes are playing a week later than originally listed on NBC.com.Now it makes more sense. Very funy!

I totally noticed this as well and conveniently had Groundhog Day recorded on my DVR from the week before so I could do an imediate comparison. I was shocked how I recognized it so fast but obviously wasn't the only one!